Chinese officials identified the 18-year-old mastermind behind the murder of the religious leader Jume Tahir in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
According to initial reports, the teen was influenced by religious extremism and used these ideologies to conspire and execute the plan of killing Tahir, a state-appointed imam of China's largest mosque.
Tahir was a controversial figure among Uighurs. In 2009, he supported the government after it nullified riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, in which nearly 200 people were killed.
Tahir, a 74-year-old imam, was killed around 6:58 a.m. July 30 at the Id Kah mosque in the county-level city of Kashgar. Police had then killed two suspects and arrested a third suspect in the case, reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency. The authorities revealed that the suspects were motivated by religious radicalism and wanted to "do something big." The suspects with knives and axes resisted arrest that resulted in the killings.
Aini taught his accomplice Nurmemet Abidili about jihad, according to the Xinjiang Daily. "The first time I heard the word 'jihad, I was really excited, I wanted to conduct 'jihad' and do great things", the newspaper quoted Nurmemet Abidili as saying.
The police report states that the teen Aini Aishan plotted the attack that happened in the western region of Xinjiang. Police detained Aini in Hotan city, located in Xinjiang, two days after the fatal incident.
"The goal is to kill Juma Tayir so you can go to heaven," Ainis was quoted saying by China Topix. According to the officials, Aini perceived Tahir as someone who "twisted the meaning of the Koran."
